BRITAIN is considering withdrawing the bulk of its troops from Iraq by the middle of next year, according to a secret document leaked yesterday.

Despite protestations by the Ministry of Defence that it was “just a discussion paper”, the “Secret — UK Eyes Only” document was drawn up by the MoD’s policy director rather than a lowly military planner, and was signed by John Reid, the Defence Secretary.

The document, prepared by Martin Howard, DirectorGeneral Policy at the MoD, envisaged Britain’s troop strength being cut from the present 8,500 to 3,000 by next year, saving about £500 million a year.

Mr Reid wrote in the memorandum, which was leaked to The Mail on Sunday, that decisions on troop levels in Iraq had to be taken later this year.

The document also revealed that the United States wanted to cut overall coalition troop numbers from 176,000 to 66,000. There was a “strong US military desire” for “significant” force reductions, the secret memo said.

Mr Reid confirmed that he had produced the report, entitled “Options for Future UK Force Posture in Iraq”, but he insisted that the Government had not changed its position on keeping British troops in Iraq for as long as they were needed.

MoD sources said that it was “not unusual” for the Defence Secretary to attach his name to a document of this nature, and that there were many other discussion papers setting out options facing Britain and the US in Iraq.

However, it seemed unlikely that Mr Reid would have attached his name to all the papers, and the fact that the leaked document was authored by Mr Howard — in other words at the top end of policy-making — would suggest that the prospects for a substantial withdrawal of troops next year is now likely.

Mr Reid said, however, that there was no decision on troop withdrawals, and MoD sources said that, despite the contents of the leaked document, Government policy on Iraq “has not moved”. Military sources dismissed one suggestion that the British command responsibilities in southern Iraq could be handed over to Australia which already has troops working alongside the British.

• A man with explosives strapped to his body walked into a crowded army recruitment centre in Baghdad yesterday and blew himself up, killing at least 25 people and wounding almost 50, ending a brief period of relative calm in the capital. Elsewhere in Iraq, bombs killed another seven people, while assassinations and rampant crime claimed many other lives. Eight members of a Shia family in Baghdad, including a boy of two, and mostly children aged under 14, were found shot dead, each with a bullet to the back of the head.

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